Top tools to increase printing efficiency

Last month I wrote about managed print services and how they can streamline your paper output. When considering a managed print service, there are a couple of technical solutions that you can mix in with your print service to further enhance efficiency and productivity.

Print routing

The first of these is print routing. Print routing is a neat piece of software that sits on your system and examines print jobs to determine where and what to print, so that output is directed to the most appropriate machine. The routing is determined by a set of print rules.

Print routing can bring a number of advantages to a firm. For example, a rule can be set to direct large bible or discovery jobs to the fastest available machine, and to condition the output to be black and white only. In extreme cases, print jobs can be split across machines to enhance performance, or timed to coincide with periods of low usage to prevent daytime production issues.

The ability to exercise such granular control over printed output can have a significant positive effect on printing costs, as it reduces the possibility of being charged colour rates for monochrome printing and ensures local print policies designed to save money are automatically enforced, rather than left to individual decisions. Firms using this facility should also be able to increase printer life by not overworking lower capacity machinery.

Routing should also deliver efficiency advantages by speeding up output or directing jobs to more appropriate machines. It will also allow a firm to maximise throughput and machine utilisation rates.

'Follow me' printing

Another extremely useful solution that firms can add to their printing setups is 'follow me' printing. This is a system whereby each print job is only actually printed when the user presents a form of authentication (usually an ID card or personal code) to the printing device. Many firms use a card for their door entry systems, and this system can normally be integrated into the same
card for convenience.

'Follow me' printing provides a range of advantages. For example, how many times have you walked past a printer and seen reams of printed material that has not been collected? Uncollected print jobs still cost money to print, and are therefore financially wasteful. They are also not environmentally friendly in terms of wasted paper, toner and electricity, not to mention shorter printer lifespans. 'Follow me' printing reduces these problems to a minimum as the user has to present themselves at the printer to collect the output. If the printed output was not needed after all, simply not turning up to present your authentication prevents an unnecessary print job.

Security risks

Print jobs left in printers can also be a security or privacy risk, especially where the printed document is sensitive or contains personal information about staff members or clients. In 20 years of working with lawyers, I have lost count of the amount of confidential documents and employee contracts I have seen left in printers. A colleague of mine who undertakes security audits tells me that one of the easiest ways to obtain information once you are in a firm is to walk round and collect output left in the printers. After all, when was the last time you challenged someone for picking up a bunch of papers from a printer? 'Follow me' printing dramatically reduces the possibility of this malpractice, and also prevents any incidents of rogue printing by non-authorised users.

'Follow me' printing, especially when combined with print routing, provides a powerful and flexible set of tools for a firm to use to completely control its print output. Most systems will also provide reporting tools, so that further analysis of printed output can be undertaken to drive efficiency further.

Law firms are still print-intensive environments
and should therefore pay a reasonable amount of attention to maximising efficiency and lowering the associated costs. These solutions will not necessarily work in very small firms, but they will be beneficial in any environment where a print server is employed, and should be given serious consideration. SJ

Damian Blackburn is director of legal IT consultancy firm SLFtech